Military

12:30 p.m. EST

MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon. No opening statements, so we can get right into your questions.

QUESTION: Can you elaborate at all on the State Department's involvement, if any, in assisting foreign victims of the Virginia Tech shooting?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, to my knowledge, Matt, there has not been any official announcements from the Virginia Tech people or from the law enforcement about naming the victims. I know that there have been some ad hoc reports about it. But I'm going to withhold any comment about that matter until an official announcement comes out of law enforcement or the Virginia Tech people.

QUESTION: What would you -- there have been -- I'm sure you've seen the reports about foreign victims, both students and staff.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: What is the Department in a position or able to do? What assistance is the Department able to offer, perhaps not specifically in this case, but in any case?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, in the case that there -- and I have to make it clear, I am not in a position to confirm nationalities of any victims, if there are any foreign nationals who were a victim in this tragedy -- of course, we would work with embassies to offer any assistance that we possibly could, helping to serve as an intermediary with any local officials, law enforcement officials basically to offer any help that we possibly could. We would work through our regional bureaus as well as through our protocol office as well in that eventuality.

QUESTION: You won't comment that you are doing such activities?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not going to -- I hope everybody understands that I'm just not going to have any comment whatsoever about anything touching on the identity of the victims or any of their identifying details because I think it only is proper that that information come out of the university officials or the law enforcement officials. I certainly don't want to give rise to any concern on the part of parents who may be living overseas who have children attending Virginia Tech. So I think what we're going to do is we're going to wait until there's an official announcement and then at that point if there's anything that would touch upon State Department equities or involvement in the process, then I'd be happy to talk to you about it.

QUESTION: What kind? When you say "any assistance we possibly could" what kind of assistance would that be?

MR. MCCORMACK: It would really depend on the situation. Perhaps we would be in a position to be a liaison with an embassy and local officials or to work with federal government officials or anybody else within the United States to help families, to help embassies, that sort of thing. So I can't offer you a specific playbook that we have. I think we would just as a way of lending our good offices to assist embassies if they need help, then we would do that.

QUESTION: Well, what about expediting visas for family members of victims who are from abroad?

MR. MCCORMACK: Of course, if we ever got to that point, I'm sure that we would take a look and see what we can do.

Libby.

QUESTION: What is your interaction with law enforcement officials now to the extent that you could say? Are you working with the FBI or --

MR. MCCORMACK: You know, Libby, again, this gets back to the point of I'm just not going to touch on this topic and I think you understand why. I think we have to be sensitive in this time and it's a very emotional time. And again, I don't want to give rise to any undue concern -- parents who may be living overseas. I'm sure everybody understands that. But again, when we get to the point where there are official announcements about the victims of this tragedy and if it does involve any foreign nationals then I'd be happy to talk about what involvement, if any, the State Department may have in assisting families or embassies.

QUESTION: More on this. Is there any concern that this incident may discourage people from -- potential students or faculty from coming to the United States, given the high number of foreign students at the university?

MR. MCCORMACK: When we have -- the State Department issues right now over 200,000 student visas per year. And the United States is a popular destination for good reason for foreign students studying. It is a good environment for students to explore boundaries of knowledge, contribute to a body of knowledge in their given area of study. This incident was a terrible tragedy. And be assured that local officials, state officials, federal officials, as well as university officials, do everything that they believe is prudent, everything that they can to ensure that the students are able to study and thrive in a safe environment. I'm certainly not going to try to speculate about the particular motives or circumstances in this case. But this is a case the likes of which we have not seen in this country ever before, so in that sense it is unique. But on the whole, this is a place where I expect foreign students will want to continue to come to study.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: Can you tell us on the telephone conversation between Secretary Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon this morning?

MR. MCCORMACK: They did have a conversation. They talked a little bit about the BDA issue and where we stand and where we stand with the six-party talks. At the moment, we are at a point of the North Koreans being able to access those accounts in BDA that were previously frozen -- that according to the Macanese officials. So the ball is in the North Korean court. Any issues that may exist or that may be perceived as being there are issues between the North Koreans and their bankers. We have done everything that we possibly can to resolve this and we would like very much to get back to the point of focusing on the main topic of the six-party talks, and that is a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. And we hope that we are able to get back to that point in the very near future. We, as well as other members of the six-party talks, are looking to North Korea to take the steps that they have pledged that they would take under the February 13th agreement, which means shutting down and sealing the Yongbyon reactor.

QUESTION: Governor Richardson said he's optimistic to getting back to, you know, six-party talks North Korea said. What is the reality of returning North Korea and Governor Richardson said -- is he more optimistic story about it?

MR. MCCORMACK: Governor Richardson?

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't know -- I haven't seen all of his public comments. We're all hopeful that we can get back to the business of the six-party talks, which is getting into discussions about how to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula as well as other topics that may well be on the agenda concerning the security architecture in Northeast Asia as well as the armistice that is currently in place involving North Korea, the United States, China and the UN.

We all want to get back to that point. We're not at that point yet. And what we need to see from North Korea are actions to implement the February 13th agreement.

Elise.

QUESTION: Governor Richardson had said that the North Koreans had -- I'm sorry if this had come up previously, but had -- the North Koreans had expressed a willingness to return the U.S.S. Pueblo. I was wondering if you had heard back from the delegation about that.

MR. MCCORMACK: I had not heard that before.

QUESTION: Well, apparently, he took --

MR. MCCORMACK: I know that they took him for a tour of the U.S.S. Pueblo.

QUESTION: Well, apparently, they expressed a willingness to return this in -- as part of a goodwill gesture in terms of a possible armistice agreement and stuff like that. If you can --

MR. MCCORMACK: I hadn't heard that, Elise, so I'll have to track it down and see if there's any particular reaction.

QUESTION: Thanks.

MR. MCCORMACK: Nicholas.

QUESTION: Back on the phone call with the Secretary and the foreign minister of South Korea. Did they at all talk about the Virginia Tech incident and the fact that the person who was identified as the shooter was South Korean? Did that come up? Do you know?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm not aware that it did.

QUESTION: And just on the -- back on the BDA issue, the owner of the bank, Stanley Au I think is his name, said today that the only way for the money to go back to the North Koreans if -- is for the money to be actually withdrawn in cash because no bank will actually take the money. Just for the record, you don't have any problem with the North Koreans going physically and taking cash out of their bank, do you?

MR. MCCORMACK: Any specific arrangements the North Koreans and their bankers may work out are for them to work out. The North Korean pledge is to use these funds, once they're accessed, for the betterment of the North Korean people and for humanitarian purposes and that's what everybody expects that they will be used for.

QUESTION: So one of the most difficult way to track that and to see how the money's used is to actually take it out in cash?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, Nicholas, I think it -- once it gets into North Korea, it is difficult to track --

QUESTION: In any way, okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: They don't have the most robust tracking mechanisms in North Korea, but that does not mean that we don't expect to hold North Korea to that pledge, we as well as others in the six-party talks.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) You don't have a problem with them taking it out in cash? Is that what you're --

MR. MCCORMACK: Again, we have done what we are going to do on this issue. There is --

QUESTION: (Inaudible) discussion if you had a problem if they take it out in cash?

MR. MCCORMACK: As I said, any of the technical arrangements about how the North Koreans access their accounts is going to be up to the North Koreans and their bankers to work out. It's not a matter in which we're going to place ourselves in the middle. It's for them to work out, not for us.

QUESTION: So you have no problem if the North Koreans are okay with it and Stanley Au is okay with it, that -- you have no problem with that?

MR. MCCORMACK: I think I gave you an answer.

QUESTION: Well, but you're not really saying it straightforward.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, if you'd like to stand up here and answer for me, you can, but I've given you the answer I'm going to. No, that's what you usually do, Matt.

QUESTION: I'll do that.

MR. MCCORMACK: No, that's what you usually do, Matt. (Laughter.) Make sure I have -- something to play on both sides, (inaudible).

QUESTION: Can I just make sure of one thing? The conversation that she -- that the Secretary had was yesterday, right? Or today?

MR. MCCORMACK: There was -- Monday.

QUESTION: Oh, Monday?

MR. MCCORMACK: Monday, yeah.

QUESTION: I didn't --

QUESTION: I'm sorry. Do you know about -- was it, what, in the evening our time or --

MR. MCCORMACK: It was -- yes, it was in the evening, yes.

QUESTION: So just to make absolutely clear, they didn't touch at all on the Virginia Tech shooting?

MR. MCCORMACK: Not that I'm aware of. Not that I'm aware of. Yeah.

Elise.

QUESTION: New topic? Have you heard back anything from the Iranians on Mr. Levinson?

MR. MCCORMACK: We have not heard any formal reply to our request for a status of his welfare and whereabouts.

QUESTION: When you made this formal -- this most recent formal request, did you give them a specific deadline at which point you wanted to hear the information or just said as soon as possible or are you putting any kind of time constraints on --

MR. MCCORMACK: We didn't, but the expectation is that you have a rapid response. They have had a sufficient period of time to pulse their system, to investigate and to determine where he might be. As I said yesterday, we believe he's still in Iran so we're looking to the Iranian officials to fill us in on what they know about his whereabouts.

QUESTION: Do you have any reason to believe that they're kind of stonewalling you or that they know and they're not telling you, or do you think that they're in good faith looking into the matter?

MR. MCCORMACK: At this point, we haven't heard back from them with a formal reply so I think we'll have a better idea once we hear actually back from the Iranians via the Swiss in a formal way as to where we stand.

Sue.

QUESTION: So you don't think they're (inaudible) around here, the fact that they haven't replied, that this guy has been missing and you think he's in Iran?

MR. MCCORMACK: We think they've had long enough to determine where Mr. Levinson is. We're looking for a formal reply.

Lambros.

QUESTION: On Turkey.

MR. MCCORMACK: On Turkey.

QUESTION: Mr. McCormack -- how do you -- excuse me. Are you still -- do you still fighting for a unified Iraq and to be more specifically, do you oppose any invasion of Iraq by neighboring countries, mainly Syria, Iran and Turkey?

MR. MCCORMACK: I think we -- I think I've talked about this before, but on the first part of your question, yes, we are for the territorial integrity of Iraq as it stands.

QUESTION: Okay. And the second part on the three countries?

MR. MCCORMACK: In terms of -- I'm not aware of Syria or Iran threatening to invade Turkey. Now, there have been some tensions recently -- invade Iraq. There have been some tensions recently between Turkey and Iraq, and what we are doing is trying to have the Turks, have the Iraqis work together to resolve those tensions. We understand that these tensions emanate from activities of the PKK. It's a terrorist organization and it poses a threat to Turkish citizens as well as Turkish officials, and that threat needs to be addressed.

The best way to address that threat is for Turkey and Iraq to cooperate so that you don't get to the point where parties are considering cross-border actions.

QUESTION: And I'm very concerned about the intention of the Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit. Once again --

MR. MCCORMACK: Lambros --

QUESTION: -- threatening to invade northern Iraq --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Look --

QUESTION: -- prior to the upcoming elections in Turkey. I'm very concerned about this.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Lambros, I've answered this question specifically before about his comments and I just gave you a shorter capsulized version of that answer, so I think you have enough to work with.

Nicholas.

QUESTION: New subject? On the announcement Paula Dobriansky made in Geneva today, the new legislation being proposed in terms of the FSNs overseas who can apply for immigrant visas to the United States, how far along is that draft legislation? Have you already sent it up to the Hill? What sort of timeline are you looking at in terms of adopting the law and those FSNs being able to apply for visas?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we think that this effort should move forward as quickly as possible. I'll have to check for you to see where this legislation is in the pipeline. We think it's an important issue that needs to be addressed with some expediency.

QUESTION: And obviously there are a lot of people on the Hill who have expressed support for such legislation in the past. Do you expect any serious problems?

MR. MCCORMACK: We'll see. We have to wait till people get a look at the legislation and see how many co -- see who the sponsors are and then who the co-sponsors might be.

QUESTION: Right.

MR. MCCORMACK: That will be a good indication of how quickly it might move.

QUESTION: Just one last one. That law would lower the requirement or the minimal requirement from 15 years of service to three years of service.

MR. MCCORMACK: At the discretion of the Secretary.

QUESTION: Right, right. Now, a lot of the FSNs in Afghanistan and Iraq have already served three years or more.

MR. MCCORMACK: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: If they were all to apply as soon as this law goes into effect, are you going to be able to hire hundreds of people at the same time to serve in the embassies in Afghanistan and Iraq?

MR. MCCORMACK: That's getting many, many steps down the hypothetical road and I don't think I'll follow you.

QUESTION: All right.

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, we want to do right by people who have served well and honorably on behalf of their country and the United States and we think that's important. At the same time, you try to balance the interest of ensuring that the skilled people who will help build that country, help build Iraq, help build Afghanistan also have incentives to stay in those countries. So in crafting the legislation that's what we -- those were the two things that we were trying to balance and this was what we thought was the best answer. Now, I'm sure that there will be lots of others with suggestions especially up on the Hill and we're going to listen to those. But we think this is -- this strikes the right balance and as for any -- if, in fact, you do get the legislation and you do start people in this program then, of course, we're going to deal with the situation as we're -- as it is before us and I am sure that we would be able to find qualified people to fill those jobs.

Yeah.

QUESTION: On Cambodia.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: Why did the State Department decide to grant a visa to Hok Lundy here? You previously denied him a visa and he is allegedly responsible for extrajudicial killings, drug trafficking --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- and corruption and other horribles.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. No, I understand the allegations against this individual and I looked into the matter. It came up this morning. And what I was told was that the -- in adjudicating the visa that there were no legal bars to his receiving a visa. So essentially it comes down to a policy judgment. And the policy judgment in this case was he was scheduled to attend a conference or a meeting with the FBI concerning counterterrorism issues. And as for the details of the visa application or information that we have may have gathered as part of that visa review process, it's not something that I can get into. It's not something I can offer up.

QUESTION: Is this a case, though, where you have sort of turned a blind eye to human rights abuses because you want to serve the interests of, you know, counterterrorism concerns?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, as I said, the key here -- and I know that there are a lot of allegations and I'm not trying to discount those allegations -- the key here is that there is no -- in the review of the visa application, there was no legal bar to his being granted a visa, and that there are certain -- in that process, there are certain standards that have to be met in terms of information. So that is really the best that I can offer you on this.

QUESTION: Yeah, but previously, he's been denied a visa because he was on a human trafficking sort of hot list, so is he still on that human trafficking list?

MR. MCCORMACK: You know those are not things that we can get into in terms of the visa application process. I'm just -- I'm constrained by the law in talking about any information that we may have gathered and considered as part of this process.

QUESTION: So you say it came down to a policy decision and that policy decision was -- can you repeat it, (inaudible)?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right, I was trying to make the distinction between the legal bar under the law to his receiving a visa and then making, essentially, the judgment --

QUESTION: Right.

MR. MCCORMACK: The policy judgment that he would be granted a visa in this case. And I just wanted to try to steer you away from the idea that we had information that would have legally prevented us from issuing a visa. Obviously, if we have that kind of information, we can't issue a visa. But in this case, it was decided that he would be granted a visa specifically to attend these counterterrorism meetings.

QUESTION: So what was the policy judgment?

MR. MCCORMACK: The policy judgment was as previously stated; he would try -- he was going to attend some meetings in the (inaudible).

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

MR. MCCORMACK: And it was decided that he would not be granted a visa. And in this case, it was decided because of -- and I can't describe these in any more detail, that there were compelling reasons for -- that he be granted a visa to attend this meeting.

QUESTION: There's been quite a little bit of internal debate or -- between the departments to work out whether this fellow should have been granted a visa or was it --

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't have firsthand knowledge of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a healthy discussion about this matter.

QUESTION: Well, you can understand why human rights groups are saying --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah -- no, no, I understand that --

QUESTION: -- it's hypocritical to give this guy a visa.

MR. MCCORMACK: No, I understand the allegations. I understand the seriousness of those allegations. And unfortunately, in these cases, you know -- these cases involving the confidentiality of the visa process, I'm really constrained in what I can say about it, so we unfortunately end up going around and around in circles on it.

QUESTION: Sean, I just wanted to confirm, so you can't get into what the compelling reasons were to grant him --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, I'm not going to delve any further into the process than that, but I did want to try to walk you through it as best I could and differentiating between legal bars and policy judgments.

QUESTION: Sean, are you going to invite him to the State Department maybe to meet some officials here and discuss -- you know, drug trafficking, corruption, and other issues?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't expect that he will come over to the State Department, but as the FBI is a law enforcement agency quite concerned with all of those issues, you can ask them whether or not they'll bring them up.

QUESTION: Sean, do you know actually if the FBI requested help from the State Department to get him a visa or did he just go and apply as a private citizen and just -- this was the reason for the visit?

MR. MCCORMACK: And hope nobody would notice any of this? No, I don't -- no, I think -- I can't tell you, Nicholas. I'm sure that there was a conversation, but I can't vouch for that a hundred percent.

QUESTION: Right. And just one last one; if you know, and you may not, but these meetings at the FBI, would -- this wasn't a conference or any sort of a group type of meeting or --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, my understanding is it's just --

QUESTION: He and --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, some (inaudible).

QUESTION: So why couldn't the FBI officials meet him in Cambodia?

MR. MCCORMACK: Nicholas, you're -- you can ask my friends at the FBI that question.

QUESTION: All right.

MR. MCCORMACK: Anything else?

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay. Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 12:53 p.m.)